HARARE,
Zimbabwe
(AP)
—
A
Zimbabwean
court
freed
an
opposition
leader
and
34
activists
Wednesday
after
sentencing
them
to
suspended
prison
terms
for
participating
in
what
authorities
termed
an
unlawful
gathering.
Magistrate
Collet
Ncube
sentenced
Jameson
Timba,
interim
leader
of
a
faction
of
the
splintered
Citizens
Coalition
for
Change
party,
to
a
suspended
two-year
prison
term
after
he
and
the
activists
had
been
held
for
more
than
five
months
in
custody.
The
activists
received
lesser
prison
terms,
also
wholly
suspended.
The
magistrate
convicted
Timba
and
the
activists
last
week.
He
acquitted
30
others
who
had
been
detained
alongside
Timba.
Police
arrested
them
at
Timba’s
residence
in
the
capital,
Harare,
and
charged
them
with
disorderly
conduct
and
participating
in
a
gathering
with
the
intent
to
promote
violence,
breaches
of
peace
or
bigotry.
The
court
acquitted
them
of
the
disorderly
conduct
charges
in
September.
Their
lawyers
said
they
were
at
the
house
for
a
barbecue
to
commemorate
the
Day
of
the
African
Child,
a
calendar
event
of
the
African
Union.
Amnesty
International
described
the
detention
as
“part
of
a
disturbing
pattern
of
repression”
by
Zimbabwean
authorities
under
President
Emmerson
Mnangagwa
and
called
for
an
investigation
into
allegations
that
some
of
the
activists
were
tortured
while
in
police
detention.
Mnangagwa’s
ruling
ZANU-PF
party
has
long
been
accused
of
using
the
police
and
courts
to
quash
opposition,
including
under
the
autocratic
former
President
Robert
Mugabe,
who
ruled
for
37
years
before
Mnangagwa
replaced
him
in
a
coup
in
2017.
Post
published
in:
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